HOW BULGARIA IS GOVERNED
To attempt to describe how Bulgaria is governed is to enter inevitably
into the realms of controversy. In theory the system of government is
purely democratic: and many Bulgarians are confident that the practice
follows the theory closely. Personally I have my doubts. The working of
a fully democratic constitution seems to be tempered a great deal by the
aristocratic powers reserved to the King in Council at times of crisis:
and this tempering is probably necessary.
The ancient Bulgarian system of government was without a doubt the
despotic tribal system of nomads. Under Turkish rule, the territory of
Bulgaria was administered as the Vilayet of the Danube under a Turkish
Pasha; and not always badly administered as is proved by the fact that
Bulgarian industry and thrift was allowed to raise the province into
the most flourishing one of Turkey-in-Europe. But until the Treaty of
Paris in 1856, Turkey had no real political organisation. Being a
theocratic state, all her public institutions emanated from the
Kaliph, as the representative of Mohammed. The Koran took the place of
civil and criminal law, and the duty of its ministers was to punish
all those who broke its commandments. Every parish had a "cadi," who
was appointed by the spiritual chief. The cadi concentrated in his
hands all jurisdictions, judging without appeal cases, civil and
criminal, and observing no fixed rules of procedure in the application
of the few principles which the Koran contained on the subject of
civil relations. In certain special cases, the Sheik-ul-Islam of
Constantinople, the highest religious tribunal in Turkey, had the
right to revise the decisions of the cadis. At the Congress of Paris,
Turkey, as one of the participating parties, was admitted into the
concert of European Powers. Then civil tribunals were for the first
time created in Turkey. In 1867 they were introduced in the Vilayet
of the Danube by the then Governor-General, Midhat Pasha. In 1877
the Russians liberated Bulgaria from the Turks. After the Treaty of
Berlin Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff framed a provisional system of
government for Bulgaria. Then a Russian law professor, Gradovsky, with
the help of General Domontovity, framed a constitution for Bulgaria.
This was based upon the commune being, as in Russia, the organic unit
of administrative control, and was aristocratic rather than democratic
in its general character, though it provided for a far more liberal
system of government than that existing in Russia herself.
[Illustration: A GRAVE QUESTION]
The draft Constitution was submitted to a Constituent Assembly elected
by the Bulgarian people at Tirnova in February 1879. The Assembly
elected a Committee of fifteen members to consider the draft. This
Committee revised the draft, making it less democratic than before. The
Assembly rejected their revision and set to work to recast the
Constitution, making it far more liberal, and including a provision for
universal suffrage. The Constitution thus revised was affirmed and has
been in force since, with occasional suspensions when the Prince for a
time took autocratic power. Since 1883 the Constitution has not been
suspended.
The main principles of the Bulgarian Constitution are:
(1) Separation of public authorities into legislative, executive and
judiciary.
(2) Equality of citizens, as regards civil and political rights.
(3) Inviolability of the person, residence, property, and
correspondence.
(4) Liberty of conscience, liberty of the press, liberty of public
meetings, and liberty to form associations.
(5) Direct and secret universal suffrage for the election of members of
the National Assembly, and departmental and municipal councils.
(6) Local self-government.
The authorities under the constitution are:
1. The king, who is head of the army and navy, has the supreme executive
power and can appoint and dismiss ministers, can prorogue Parliament but
not for longer than two months, and can dissolve Parliament. The King
may issue regulations and order measures, having the obligatory force of
laws, whenever the State is threatened with immediate internal or
external danger. All such measures, however, must be adopted by the
Cabinet Council, and entail the collective responsibility of all the
ministers. They must be submitted to the approval of the National
Assembly in the course of its earliest session. A special section of the
Constitution expressly forbids the levying, by means of such
extraordinary regulations, of new taxes or duties, the National Assembly
having alone the right to impose them.
2. The National Assembly, elected by manhood suffrage through a secret
ballot. Every deputy has the right to make propositions and to introduce
bills, if he is supported by one-fourth of the members present. The
National Assembly may amend the bills and propositions introduced by the
Government. The deputies have the right to make interpellations. By
means of this, the deputies can force individual ministers or the entire
Government to explain their line of conduct and to state their
intentions on some special matter, or as regards their general policy.
The National Assembly may appoint commissions of inquiry or institute
inquiries as regards the conduct of the Government. It may submit to the
Crown special addresses.
There is no Upper House, but for special occasions a "Grand National
Assembly" is convoked. This has the same composition as the ordinary
National Assembly, and its members are elected in the same way. The
only difference between the two is that the number of members of a Grand
National Assembly is twice that of the ordinary National Assembly, every
electoral unit of 20,000 inhabitants sending two deputies instead of
one. The Grand National Assembly may decide only those matters which
have necessitated its convocation. A Grand National Assembly is called
in the following cases:
1. To decide questions of exchanging or ceding a portion of the
territory of Bulgaria.
2. To revise the Constitution.
3. To elect a new Prince when the reigning family becomes extinct, owing
to absence of descendants who can occupy the throne.
4. To appoint regents during the minority of the heir to the throne.
5. To authorise the Prince to accept the government of another State.
Every Order must bear, in addition to the signature of the Prince, that
of one minister or of all the ministers, these latter being the
responsible representatives of the executive authority. The ministers
are held responsible to the Prince and to the National Assembly for all
their acts. This responsibility is collective for all the ministers in
the case of measures which have been decided by the Council of
Ministers, and individual with respect to the acts of the ministers as
heads of the various State Departments.
What I have described represents in effect a complete system of
representative and responsible government. But observation of Bulgarian
politics during and since the war has suggested to me that the King and
his ministers really can exercise a practical oligarchy: and it is
probably necessary that they should.
In the Bulgarian National Assembly there is a very strong Socialist
party, and the Parliamentary life of the Kingdom is stormy.